Family
by forty-two dreams
Summary: How Pepper sees it. You decide.


Pepper was simply trying to patiently endure another bull session about Miss Hannigan when she snapped.

"I don't believe we had to clean the floor in the middle of the night again!" whispered July.

"And then she locked Molly in the cellar. Why does she have to be so mean?" asked Duffy.

"She's only nice to Mr. Bundles," Kate agreed.

Did they not know? Pepper wondered. Did they honestly not see?

"You know what?" Duffy decided. "I think she's the reason Lindsey left last year."

"Lindsey was nice," sighed Duffy.

"And she told us stories," Kate remembered.

Enough was enough. "Lindsey running away wasn't Miss Hannigan's fault," she stated confidently.

"What?" the girls shrieked in unison.

"Who would want to stay here?" asked July.

"Someone with brains," she said, proud to know something no one else knew.

"But the cleaning--"

"Don't you know anything? There's a cholera epidemic going on outside; I hear people warning each other about it on our walks."

"Collar what?" asked Kate.

"Cholera. It's a disease, and you have to make sure it doesn't spread by sterilizing the joint. In an orphanage, we live so close together, we'd be sick all the time if we didn't clean our bedroom as soon as Miss Hannigan warned us."

"Then why's Molly in the cellar?" asked July.

"Because, dimwit, she's new. She might be carrying the disease. Who knows where she lived before this?"

"Why doesn't she give us anything but mush?" asked Tessie.

"This place runs on a budget. There's a depression on; we're lucky she can afford what she does for so many kids. There's some in asylums that don't get anything for breakfast, cold or hot. Lindsey told me."

"But, but, but why is she so mean? And why did Lindsey leave?" asked Duffy.

Pepper sighed. "Lindsey, and Nina before her, and Sara from when I can barely remember, had to leave. They were all fifteen or sixteen when the time came, and new orphans were being shipped in all over the place. They knew there was only so much money for this orphanage: so many beds, so much food, so many sewing machines. This is a home for girls, not a family. You get too old to need it and you're out on your own. One day, you run away like Annie's always doing, and no one stops you."

"Well, I can't wait!" said Tessie.

"Then what?" asked July.

Pepper closed her eyes. She had gotten a letter from Nina last week—the details were too grim for these girls' ears. They didn't need to know about what happened when you ran out of things to sell and sold the only thing you could.

"They're probably dirt poor. I'd rather be in here than out there." Silence. "I've only got a couple of years. There's a depression on." More silence. "There is a reason Miss Hannigan's so mean. She knows we're going to have to leave some day. Even real families don't live together forever all the time. And…… and…… it would be like letting a daughter go every couple years if she got too attached. Don't you see?"

No one spoke while this information sunk in. "Is that why….. you're….. well….Peppery?" Duffy ventured.

Pepper considered this. One day she would leave, yes, and if she were nice like Lindsey, it would be like letting go of so many sisters. But she still couldn't help being nice sometimes.

"No," she grinned, "I was born that way."

She would never be as good as Miss Hannigan. She would never be able to project such nastiness out of consideration. Was it necessary? Yes, but not going to happen.

"None of you get it! There's a depression on. Every day, Miss Hannigan listens to twenty odd girls tell her they love her—that's a requirement in the orphan handbook, by the way-- and she knows it's not true. Wouldn't that make you mean?"

They slowly nodded.

The next day, there were no complaints about the mush, the work, or the cleaning. Molly got out of the cellar, and Kate told her what had happened. Molly thought for a moment, then ran over and hugged Miss Hannigan's waist.

She was taken aback for a moment. Then: "What are you doing? Get back to work, you ragmuffin, unless you want to go back to the cellar!"

But half the girls swore later that she winked at them as she said it.


End file.
